Fallen Kingdom Online
by Fallen Kingdom Online
Summary: Kirito, Asuna and their friends embark on a new adventure into the severely popular VR MMO RPG game Fallen Kingdom Online. Everything seems to be normal until players start vanishing, nowhere to be found. Its up to Kirito and Asuna along with the others to find out why. Sword Art Online(SAO) Original Story.
1. Chapter 1

New Aincrad, Floor 22, Kirito and Asuna's cabin

7:36 PM

"Fallen Kingdom Online is currently the most popular MMO RPG in all of the virtural reality community despite it's

1 month age. This game is similar, yet dissimilar to the formerly famous Alfheim online. Like Alfheim, Fallen

Kingdom has a central boss that the players from the different kingdom will work to defeat, the King. The King

spawns daily guards that raid the different kingdoms. It is the players's jobs to defend their respective kingdoms

against the guards. Between each kingdom, there is lots of different types of terrain: dungeons, mountains, rivers,

and even oceans and deserts. To defeat the game, one kingdom must clear the entire royal palace and kill the king.

Once the king is killed, the kingdom that kills the king receives a random special boost that ranges from a health

multiplier to more exotic monster spawns allowing for interesting unique delicacies to spawn in each region. As of

now, the only kingdoms that have managed to defeat the king are Hyperborea and Pyrria. If the rumors are true,

All the Pyrric players at that time received a 1.5x multiplier to their experience points. Apparently Hyperborea

received the health boost. As of patch 1.0.2, player killing has allowed to make the game-" a hand holding

a remote shuts off the TV.

"So what do you think of it?" Kirito asks Asuna as he puts the remote on to the coffee table in front of them.

"I don't know, Kirito, it seems a bit bloody. Regardless, if you want to try then we can give it a go." Asuna

replies from the other side of the couch.

"Well, Sinon and Agil have already tried the game and they say that the concepts of the game make it really fun

and addicting." says Kirito.

"Lets try it then!" Asuna says enthusiastically.


	2. Chapter 2

Real World, Kazuto's house

11:54 PM

After purchasing two copies of Fallen Kingdom Online from the VR gaming store, one of their last few copies of

the game, Kazuto drops one copy at Asuna's house and brings one back to his own. He flips the game over to try

to find which company created the game. As it turns out, its a company that goes by the name of Promethius.

Unsure of whether the company is to be trusted or not, Kazuto googles the company Promethius and finds that

it is a smaller company that has had dealings with many other VR games and their creators like Warlords Online,

Arrow Raid online and even the post-Wreaked Progress Alfheim Online.

"Seems legit," Kazuto says.

"If anyone dares to create one more VR MMO RPG game where people can kill others IRL, then he would..." He never

got the time to finish the thought before he falls asleep.

* * *

Real World, Kirito's house

8:12 AM

Kazuto Kirigaya, after a night of semi-murderous dreams, wakes up to the persistent ring of the doorbell. Looking

out of his window, he sees Asuna outside. Kazuto rushes down the stairs and trips on the 2nd to last stair, just

like he always does when he rushes down the stairs. Kazuto lays sprawled on the bottom the stairs. After a few

seconds he says "Ow," then stands up and reaches for the doorknob.

"Well you're up early," Kazuto says as he opens the door.

"Yea, I hope you don't mind," Asuna says.

"Come in," Kazuto replies.

"You want coffee?" Kazuto calls from the kitchen.

"I'm fine, lets just get straight to the game." Asuna says excitedly.

"Kay', meet me upstairs. In my room, there are two amusphere rigs, your choice on which one you want to use." Kazuto

says while contently sipping his coffee.

Approximately 3 minutes later, Kazuto walks up the stairs and into his room to find Asuna staring at her Nerve Gear,

the one that she was stuck in for so long. Kirito takes his hand and puts it on Asuna's shoulder in an attempt to

comfort her.

"I never thought I'd see one of those again." Asuna says quietly. Part of her mind is lost in the memories of Aincrad

online and the days that she was kept prisoner in Sugo's clutches.

"Mhm..." Kazuto says absentmindedly, also thinking about their adventures in Aincrad and about the time that he

traveled with Leafa/Suguha, his sister.

"Well, anyways, lets start with the game. Its not much use looking back and its not going to change anything." Asuna

exclaims, leaving her train of thought.

They put on their nerve gears and a few insignificant seconds pass as they wait for their amuspheres to boot up before

saying "Link start". Instantly, they're brought into the login screen and into the virtual world.


	3. Chapter 3

Fallen Kingdom Online: New Player Spawn Area

"Whoa." Exclaims Kirito.

"The graphics of this game are amazing." Asuna says as she materializes next to Kirito.

They were inside a cathedral-like structure built from stone blocks. In front of them is a panel, similar

to the logins in Alfheim but definitely more high-tech looking.

"Please select your in-game name." Says a high-pitched computerized voice.

"Same name as before then, Kirito?"

"Works for me," Kirito says as he gazes, still mesmerised by the design of the building that they are in.

"Which color kingdom?"

"Eh, your choice. I don't really care."

"I'd probably go with blue then since its my favorite color."

As Asuna is focused on configuring her in-game profile, Kirito walks around the cathedral, observing his

surroundings. He looks outside one of the windows and finds himself looking at a vivid image of a forest

full of trees and bushes under the bright sun, complete with several animals moving among the tree top

branches. A breeze blows across the scene and causes the veridian grass to rustle. A small gasp from Asuna

causes Kirito to whip his head around.

"Asuna?!" Kirito asks, as he watches Asuna's FKO body dissolve into pixels. The pixels drift away through

a small opening in through the ceiling.

"Sending player Asuna to Castle Hyperborea." The digitalized voice states.

"Well, guess its my turn." Kirito says, heading up to the computer.

The computer displays several questions on its screen. In-game name? Kirito. Kingdom Color? Blue. Age? 17.

The questions on the computer seems endless but eventually Kirito finishes. Tapping the large blue "sumbit"

button on the center of the screen, Kirito feels the uncomfortable, yet familiar feeling of being pixellated.

* * *

Fallen Kingdom Online: Hyperborea Castle

The moment Asuna hits the submit button, she a surge of deja vu as her body turns into thousands of pixels.

She can see, and yet she can't. It's as if she can sense what is around her, even without eyes. She can feel

that shes moving through the air to an unknown destination. Within 30 seconds, shes there, Castle Hyperborea,

a castle located in a freezing winter setting. Going in through another hole in the ceiling, Asuna finds

herself in a fairly nice room, an obvious lobby for Hyperborean players. About a minute later, Kirito appears

through the hole in the ceiling.

"Where are we?" Kirito asks.

"Castle Hyperborea, from what it seems. I think this is the lobby."

Around them are hundereds of players, most of them chatting but also trading the new items that they got from

their daily adventures. Many of the players Kirito recognised, either as a survivor of Aincrad Online, or from

the various VR games that Kirito and his friends have tried out through their gaming career. After a few minutes

of looking, Kirito finds a familiar mop of light blue hair along with cat ears and a tail.

"Sinon, YO SINON!" Kirito shouts, over the loud chatter made in the lobby.

Sinon looks around, thinking that someone is yelling her name, but doesn't find the source so she goes back to

talking to the person he was talking to. Nearing her table, she finally looks up and recognises the couple.

"Hey, glad you've decided to try FKO. Theres a huge raid thats coming up and I heard they're trying for the king."

Sinon says.

"I don't think we'll be able to catch that one. we're way underleveled right now." Asuna replies.

"Shouldn't take too long to level for the best SAO players." Sinon says with a wink. "Well, times a wastin', get

going. It doesn't take too long to hit level 30, from then on, it takes about an hour a level till' level 50 at

level 50, you're probably a decent player. Either that or you're a player who leeches off the shared exp. that

people get when they kill a monster. Have fun!" Sinon says as she shoves Kirito and Asuna through the large

crowds, and into the wintery wilderness of the Hyperborean forest.


	4. Chapter 4

Hyperborean forest

Kirito: level 4

Asuna: level 5

"Ha, I'm beating you," Asuna teases.

"Thats only because you were traveling with a better clearing group. Besides, I was beating you for the first bit."

Kirito says while pouting a bit.

"Its the end result that-" Asuna's voice is cut off as the ground beneath her feet dissapear."KIRITOO SAVE MEEE"

Asuna yells as she dissapears into a dark hole, a probable dungeon entrance.

"Wow, seriously? This is how you design the entrance of a dungeon?" Kirito says almost to himself before jumping in after

Asuna.

* * *

Hyperborean forest, level 8 dungeon

Kirito: level 4

Asuna: level 5

The fall isn't that bad once you get used to it. The slightly warmer air helps dispell the chills from the frosty

map. It was about 30 seconds into the fall before Kirito senses that the ground is rushing up to meet him. He twists

in mid-air and allows his feet to find purchase into the chunky rock wall. Then, he runs down the wall vertically down

the wall. A few feet from the ground, Kirito jumps off the wall and summersaults, breaking his fall. Looking around,

he finds Asuna sprawled at a painful angle. Asuna looks at Kirito with a small smile.

"Have you been practicing these?" Asuna asks, barely concealing a grin.

"Sorta, I fall down too many holes in VR games so..." Kirito says.

Kirito experiences a sudden flashback to the day in Aincrad Online that he went with Liz to collect a rare metal for

a new sword. The place where they fell into was a really deep dragon's nest and coincidentally, that is where they

found the metal that they needed.

"Anyways, where are we?" Asuna asks.

"Ummm, in a level 8 dungeon according to the map." Kirito answers.

"Oh nooow you see the dungeon," Asuna says while rolling her eyes.

"I thought it meant that the dungeon had a secret path to it underground or something." Kirito complains.

"I'm pretty sure we have to get through the dungeon to get out."

"It shouldn't be that hard, right?" Kirito asks.

Suddenly, Kirito feels small fangs puncturing the back of his neck, injecting some kind of grey poison that weakens his

muscles. His hp bar dropped, and fairly quickly because of the level gap between the player and enemy. Asuna, still

rummaging her backpack for a healing potion for her leg, doesn't notice Kirito's health bar, dipping into the orange

zone. Almost too late, Kirito calls out to Asuna to tell her about the bat. Asuna lunges at Kirito and swats the bat away. Kirito

sighs in relief as the control floods back into his muscles. After thanking Asuna, the pair stand up, and start walking into

the dungeon's inky depths.

* * *

Hyperborean forest, level 8 dungeon.

Kirito: level 10

Asuna: level 10

After clearing the entire dungeon and only finding a boss room, they deduce that they must defeat the boss to get out of the

dungeon. After leveling up numerous times during the clearing of the dungeon, Kirito thinks that they finally have decent

enough stats to defeat the boss. They walk up to the large oak double doors of the boss room, and push it open. Inside they

find a boss room layout similar to those in SAO. There were torches inside the room in a circular pattern. One by one, the

torches within the boss room start lighting up, until the statue of a giant bat is illuminated.

"Thats the boss?" Kirito asks.

"I guess..."

Kirito experimentally slices a bit off of the statue. Immediately, the stone around the giant bat starts to crumble, revealing

the boss. 4 hp bars pop up to the right of Kirito. While farming in the dungeon, Kirito found 3 swords, the best sword, he gave

to Asuna and he took the other two for himself. Staying at a relatively safe distance, they watch as the boss uses all of it's

attacks in vain to try to kill them. Judging by how simply the boss's attack strategy was coded, the boss doesn't pose much of

a threat to the players.

"Want to FFA the boss then?" Kirito asks.

"Sure, its been ages since I did an FFA boss with you."

Running up to the boss, they repeatedly slash the boss everywhere they can. The boss's armorless body provides a great place to

deal damage. After he boss's hp falls down into his final hp bar, Kirito opens the menu to look at the skills he has. Unsurprised,

Kirito looks at his dual wielding skill, his skill connect, and his various other skills that he acquired from the other VR games

under the skills section of his menu.

"Mind if I finish it off?" Asuna asks from the battlefield.

"Go ahead." Kirito replies, closing his menu.

Asuna thrusts her "Bat Fang Sword" deep into the boss. The body of the gigantic bat bursts into hundreds of tiny bats. Asuna looks up,

surprised.

"Didn't see that coming." Asuna says with raised eyebrows.

Asuna's sword turns white as she uses one of the skills that she got while clearing "Cleansing Light". Bright white light surges from

her blade in an omnidirectional attack, cleanly eradicating all of the annoying small bats. The pixels of the smaller bats rain down

on them as the bright blue "congratulations" sign appears in front of them.

Unlike SAO and Alfheim, the big chest of loot is shared between all players who dealt enough damage to the boss. The duo pick out their

favorite loot and look around for the exit. They see one at the very back of the boss room and climb out of the darkness and into the cold.


	5. Chapter 5

3 Hours later, Castle Hyperborea.

Kirito: level 28

Asuna: levl 29

Inside the lobby, the warm and cozy players chat and eat. Suddenly, the door to the castle bursts open and two injured players

stumble in. A gust of cold air rushes in through the open doors, slightly dimming all of the previously roaring fires in the

fireplace. The attention of everybody was diverted from their conversations to the two players. Behind the two beat up players,

someone closes the doors. Two kids stand up and quickly walk towards the two injured players, healing potions in their hands.

One of the two players was more injured to the other, that player, a girl, fell to the ground and collapses. The healers immediately

run to her and start pouring their healing potions on her. Aided by the self-healing systems in the safezones, the girl eventually

eases into a steady breathing pattern and falls unconcious. The healers next go to the other player, a guy in a black coat, but he

dismisses them with a wave of his hand and a quick "I'm fine". A player stands up, one of the cat-like ones and starts to speak.

"What happened to you guys? You two shouldn't have been this beat up from level farming. You wouldn't even be this hurt if you

went and soloed the a dungeon a five levels above yours." The clear, concerned voice of Sinon echoes through the enourmous cathedral.

"We ran into other players, a few of the ones from the other kingdom." Kirito says. He goes next to Asuna and finds her an empty

bed. "They were the red ones, the ones from that kingdom."

"Pyrrios," Sinon says, cold hatred evident in her voice.

"Yea them. We ran into a few of the level 60 ones that went out farming. The moment they saw us, they charged and we were beat bad."

"How'd you two escape without dying?" Sinon asks with a hint of admiration in her voice.

"Well, we kinda dragged a whole mob of level 112 monsters from the mountains on them." Smiling, Kirito recounts their adventure for

the occupants of the entire castle to hear.

At the end of the story, applause broke out, slowly at first but steadily increasing. There were even a few whistles among the

audience. After that, Sinon pulled Kirito away from the crowd's earshot.

"You know, the Hyperboreans have never gotten along with the Pyrrios. Thats why they're all so hyped up about some Pyrric deaths."

Sinon says.

"Okay?"

"Just saying. By the way, that was some fast leveling you two did. 28 levels in about 3 and a half hours? Normal players can only

reach level 15 in that time. I myself did a little better than expected, hitting level 22 at the 3.5 hour mark but 28 and 29,

thats insane."

"Thanks?"

After that, Kirito heads back to the room he found for Asuna. After just ten minutes, nearly all of Asuna's wounds have closed

up and the remaining ones are only small scratches. Filled with relief, Kirito undresses and slides into the bed he shares with

Asuna. Before he falls asleep, the quiet voice of Asuna whispers "Kirito?"

"Yea?"

"I just wanted to say... thank you, for saving me."

"You're welcome. Now go and get some rest, you'll need it if you want to regenerate your hp before the next morning."


	6. Chapter 6

The next day, 12:00 PM

Level 45 dungeon: The Catacombs

Kirito: Level 28

Asuna: Level 29

Sinon: Level 80

"Dang we're clearing this fast." Kirito sighs, stabbing his sword into the ground and leaning on it.

"The only reason for it is because Sinon is here to help us. A level 80 in a level 40 dungeon, easy peasy, its almost free xp." Asuna says

as she resheaths her sword.

"At at least they buffed the bows in the update before the last, they used to do around half of mine does." Sinon replies, shooting an emerald

colored arrow at the final skeleton.

The small party nears the boss room, and pushes open it's doors. Once inside, they stare at the place where the boss is supposed to materialize.

After waiting for a minute, Asuna asks

"Why does this situation seem familiar? My memories still haven't recovered since the incident with Yuna and Ordinal Scale."

Kirito's eyes widen and he slowly tilts his head up to the ceiling. The blood drains from his face as he finds what he is looking for. Asuna and

Sinon follow his horrified gaze until they spot the hairy 15 foot tall spider hanging upside down from the top of the boss room. Asuna emits a

piercing scream and grabs on to Kirito while jumping up and down in fear.

"Kirito! S-S-Spider!" Asuna says shakily.

Kirito calmly puts a hand on Asuna's shoulder and whispers in her ear.

"Get ready, its going to attack."

Asuna composes herself and brings out her bat fang sword. They wait a few tense seconds until the spider begins to move. Kirito and Asuna charge,

preparing their most powerful sword skills until suddenly, the boss disintegrates into particles and a small black arrow clatters on to the ground.

The duo look behind them and find Sinon grinning mischiveously.

"That was my weakest arrow by the way." Sinon says before walking towards the luminecent portal on the other side of the boss room.

Kirito and Asuna shrug before picking the useful loot that they can carry with them and leaving the rest. The party steps into the portal and

disappears, transported to the Hyperborean castle.

* * *

Hyperborean Castle

Kirito: level 36

Asuna: level 36

Sinon: level 81

"Just in the nick of time to defend from the guard rush." A sergeant calls from a round table on the second floor.

"Sinon, you're one of our best players. Please, join us for our battle plans today." A warrior in a crimson armor plate says with their back

facing the duo from the swivel chair near the end of the table.

"Well if it isn't my favorite Spriggan." The red-clad warrior says as he turns his swivel chair around.

"Eugene?" Kirito asks.

"Right in one, buddy." General Eugene stands up from his chair and reaches forward for a handshake.

Kirito clasps the generals hand. He had some mutual respect with Eugene ever since the day that they found in ALO.

"Well anyways, back to battle plans. What I was thinking was that we can have Sinon head towards the mountains to clear out some of the monsters

there and we can have Kirito and Asuna go for the daily PK rounds." Eugene continues.

"Daily PK rounds?" Asuna asks.

"Yea, you two are high enough level for them. The daily PK rounds is basically a way for us to keep our territory, well ours. All you have to do

is go and kill off the noobs that invade our territory. If you want, you can also take a bit of their territory." Sinon interjects.

"Simple enough." Asuna and Kirito say in unison.


	7. Chapter 7

Hyperborea-Pyrria Intermediate

Kirito: level 36

Asuna: level 36

Hyperborea in general is winter themed snowy territory in general but as Hyperborea touches the edges of other territories, the terrain changes. For example, when Pyrria, the embodiment of heat and lava meets Hyperborea, the land of the cold, the result is a theme similar to the transition between winter and summer: Spring.

"Kirito look, a deer!" Asuna shouts, pointing to the overpopulated woods at a doe. "Look, a flying squirrel!" Asuna exclaims, pointing to every little critter as they flit among the bushes and trees.

"It's really interesting how the implemented rare occurrences that you wouldn't typically see in real life into the game." Kirito says as he takes note of the way FKO's developers build their game.

"Don't lose focus though, remember we're supposed to go through the PK rounds." Kirito adds.

Enjoying the scenery in this game had it's drawbacks in this particular game since you could be attacked at any given moment. After a bit of admiring the scenery, Kirito hears a sharp crack split the normal sounds of the forest.

"Whos there, I know from the sounds that there is only one of you so we've got you outnumbered."

"All right, all right, I'm coming so don't shoot; I thought I was going to get some easy kills today but apparently no-" A red samurai says as he arises from the bush. He stops talking the moment he sees the duo.

"Kirito? Asuna? You actually tried out the game? Coool!" Klein says through his surprise.

"Hey Klein, how's it been?" Kirito says back cheerily.

"Amazing, I love the concept of the game. Especially raiding other kingdoms and their territories." He says with a mischievous smile.

"Speaking of which, I've come to raid those pesky hyperboreans. I hope you haven't crossed paths with any of them? I heard that they're especially nasty." Klein says, oblivious to the teal blue robes that Kirito and Asuna wore.

"We are Hyperboreans and I'm guessing that you're a Pyrr?" Asuna says with a dangerous edge to her voice.

"Oh heh, didn't realise that you were Hyperboreans." Klein says sheepishly. "No need to get hostile, Asuna, it's just that there has been a rivalry between the Hyperboreans and the Pyrrs for quite some time. Besides, it's not like you two can take me on with that "Bat Fang Sword" of yours." Klein says smugly. "Look at my most recent acquisition: the demon blade Kaguzuchi, an item with a level requirement of 86. As it turns out, they added both SAO and ALO items into this."

Asuna and Kirito glance at the crimson-indigo blade Kaguzuchi and immediately regret it. The blade reflects the designs of tortured souls moving through the curved katana.

"What do you suggest we do then?" Asks Kirito.

"Beats me." says Asuna.

"How about a picnic? You two of all people show know how I love to carry found around wherever I go. Not only that, we're in the perfect spring environment for one. Lets see," Klein opens his inventory and starts scrolling through it. "8 wrapped drakon sandwiches, 2 jugs of rohufruit cider and 4 fireberry muffins for dessert, how does that sound?"

"Sure… except I don't know anything about half of the foods that you just said."

The trio sits down and distributes Kleins food all around. Since most of the food items that Klein had acquired were either rare or legendary, all of it tasted delicious. Asuna checks out the label of the rohufruit juice and finds that it is legendary.

"Klein, how rare is a legendary item?" She asks.

"Well, there are 9 tiers in this game. From most common to the most uncommon, it would be common, uncommon, rare, artifact, legendary, fabled, unbound, unparalleled, then untiered. Common is found pretty much anywhere, Uncommon only slightly rarer and drops from level 20 or so monsters. Rare drops from level 30 ish, artifact level 50, legendary 75, fabled 90, unbound 100, unparalleled drop from the 2 final bosses of the game and untiered is gifted to the one who defeats the post-final secret boss." Klein says as he reaches for his sandwich. His hand grasps only air and he looks around, unknowing as to where his sandwich went. "I could swear-" A root erupts from the ground and wraps around a wide eyed Klein's neck.

"No, not them, they couldn't have betrayed us-" Klein gets cut off from the rest of his sentence as the vine drags him deep into the forest.


End file.
